▪ I. sollar, n.1
(ˈsɒlə(r))
Forms: α. 1 solor, (1) 4–7 soler, 4–5 (9) solere. β. 5– solar (now the usual form in sense 1 a, esp. when used Hist.), 5–6 solare. γ. 6– soller (7 -or, 9 -ere), 8 saller. δ. 6– sollar (6 -are).
[OE. solor, soler-, = OS. soleri, OHG. solâri, solêri (MHG. solre, sölre, etc., G. söller, † soller), MDu. solre (Du. zolder), MLG. solder (LG. solder, soller), ad. L. sōlāri-um, f. sōl sun. In ME., however, perh. readopted from AF. soler, solair, = OF. solier, Prov. solier, solar, Pg. soalheiro, It. solaio.]
1. a. An upper room or apartment in a house or other dwelling; in later use esp. a loft, attic, or garret (sometimes used as a granary or store-room). Now arch. or dial. exc. Hist.
Originally one open to the sun or receiving much sunlight. In OE. only transf. and fig. The confusion with cellar which appears in quot. 13.. is found occasionally in other texts down to the 16th cent.
| α c 897 K. ælfred tr. Gregory's Past. C. 23 Oððæt hio fæstlice ᵹestonde on ðæm solore ðæs modes. a 1000 Phœnix 204 Þær se wilda fuᵹel..ofer heanne beam hus ᵹetimbreð..& ᵹewicað þær sylf in þam solere. |
| a 1300 Cursor M. 15208 He þam lent..A celer [Fairf. soler] in at ete. 13.. Sir Beues 1532 Nas mete ne drinke before him leid,..Boute be a kord of a solere. 1388 Wyclif Gen. vi. 16 Thou [Noah] shalt make soleris..in the schip. c 1400 Laud Troy Bk. 15374 Paris thanne & his comperes Come walkyng out of here soleres. 1463 Bury Wills (Camden) 32 The ij chambrys with the soler above. 1523 Ld. Berners Froissart I. ccxxxii. 322 The women..entred into the houses, and went vp into the batylmentes and solers, and cast downe..stones. 1603 Stow Surv. (ed. 2) 270 Sheds or shops, with solers ouer them. |
| β c 1450 Godstow Reg. 404 The solare and tenement of the forsaid Laurence. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 240 b, Must I bee fain to walke on y⊇ solares or loftes of my hous? 1598 Stow Surv. 237 Two shops, with solars, sellars, and other edifices. 1606 Holland Sueton. 147 [He] slily crept forth and conveied himselfe up into a Solar [marg. a garret] next adioyning. a 1695 A. Wood Hist. Univ. Oxford (1792) I. 359 Stone steps that led to the solar or chamber. 1789 Smyth tr. Aldrich's Archit. (1818) 112 In the roof there are often rooms which we call solars. 1851 T. H. Turner Dom. Archit. I. 86 The principal chamber after the hall was that called the lord's chamber, or some⁓times the solar. 1868 Freeman in Stephens Life (1895) I. vi. 412 All..of this page has been written..in the solar of the manor-house. 1895 C. R. B. Barrett Surrey iii. 88 The floor of this solar is sustained by massive oak beams. |
| γ 1530 Palsgr. 272/2 Soller, a lofte, garnier. 1559 Bury Wills (Camden) 153 A hutche on the soller. 1580 Tusser Husb. (1878) 129 Then dresse it and laie it in soller vp sweete. 1623 Maldon Documents (Bundle 167, no. 1), One litle shop with a soller over it. 1674 Ray S. & E.C. Words 77 Soller, or Solar, an upper Chamber or Loft. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Soller, a loft. 1839 Sir G. C. Lewis Gloss. Heref., Soller, an upper floor. |
| δ 1530 Palsgr. 272/2 Sollar, a chambre, solier. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Acts xx. 68 There were manye candelles in the sollare where as we wer than assembled. 1577 Harrison Descr. Brit. ii. xviii, To such an Inne or sollar there I laie my corne. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 433 If they be kept in borded sollors or garners, the oile will be..lesse in quantitie. 1638 Rawley tr. Bacon's Life & Death (1650) 5 The placing of Garners, on the Tops of Houses,..is very commodious. Some also make two Sollars; An Upper, and a Lower. And the upper Sollar hath an hole in it; thorow which the Graine continually descendeth. 1819 H. Busk Vestriad iii. 817 Drowsy cits, who in their sollars snore. 1886 J. Payne tr. Boccaccio's Decameron viii. vii. III. 90 A little uninhabited tower..that the shepherds climb up..to a sollar at the top. |
b. An elevated chamber or loft in a church, in later use
spec. in a steeple or belfry.
| c 1305 St. Kenelm 340 in E.E.P. (1862) 56 Heo sat in seint peteres churche biside þe abbey ȝate In a soler in þe est side, & lokede out þerate. 1516 Churchw. Acc. in Nicholls (1797) 156 A locke and a keye to the weste dore of the solare within the church. 1533 Dunmow Churchw. MS. fol. 18 b, For makyng of the dore in to the ryngyng soller, 3s 8{supd}. 1561 Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden) 105 For ij fealde and a lader that serveth in the steple or soller. 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) III. 2281/2 You are one of them that..pulled downe the Rode seller [1596 sollar, 1684 sollor], and all the Saintes. 1754 T. Gardner Hist. Dunwich 156 The Vice or Stairs do not exceed in Height the upper Soller where the Bells hung. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia 315 A belfry..is sometimes called the bell-soller, sometimes simply the soller. 1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 473/1 Solar, Soller,..an elevated chamber in a church from which to watch the lamps burning before the altars. 1906 Raven Bells 51 The chamber called the solarium, a name still preserved by ringers in their word ‘soller’. |
† c. A story of a house.
Obs.| 1585 Higins tr. Junius' Nomencl. 181/2 Tristega,..an house of three sollers. Ibid. 211/2 Contignatio,..rearing of an house in sollers or stories. 1600 Holland Livy 1379 Plinie calleth it Septisolium, or seven lofts or solars. |
† 2. A place exposed to the sun.
Obs.| c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. vi. 176 At Mayes eende a solar is to paue. |
3. Cornish mining.
a. A platform in a mine,
esp. one supporting a ladder.
| 1778 Pryce Min. Cornub. 326 A Saller, in a Mine, is a stage or gallery of boards for men to stand on and roll away broken stuff in wheel-barrows... In a footway Shaft, the Saller is the floor for a ladder to rest upon. 1855 J. R. Leifchild Cornwall 156 At the foot of each ladder is a platform called a ‘sollar’, with an opening or man-hole leading to the next ladder beneath. 1896 J. Hocking Fields of Fair Renown i. 8 We are working from the twenty-fathom sollar towards the old mine. |
b. A raised floor under which air is admitted to a working.
| 1778 Pryce Min. Cornub. 147 They lay boards on the bottom of the Adit,..by which contrivance, called a Saller, the boards being hollow underneath, air is conveyed to the workmen. 1875 J. H. Collins Met. Mining 116 A natural current may often be produced in a long level by means of an ‘air-sollar’. To form an air-sollar, the floor of the level..is laid about 6 inches above the actual bottom of the level. |
4. attrib., as
sollar-board,
sollar-chamber,
sollar-floor, etc.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. clxii. (Bodl. MS.), Bordes and tables..whan þei beþ isette in soler flores and serueþ alle men þat beþ þerin. 1648 Hexham ii, Een Zolderberdt, a Sollar-plank or board. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe vi, I thought to have lodged him in the solere chamber. |
Hence
ˈsollar v. trans., to furnish with a sollar or flooring. Also
ˈsollaring (vbl.) n.| 1547 in J. R. Boyle Hedon (1875) App. 134 For mendynge the sollerynge over the hye altar, ij.d. 1648 Hexham ii, Een planckier, a Sollering with Plankes. Ibid., Zolderen, to Sollar, or to Lay with plankes or boards. 1778 Pryce Min. Cornub. 147 To make these matters clear with regard to driving and Sallering an Adit. |
▪ II. ˈsollar, n.2 dial. var. of
sallow n. ?
Obs.| 1733 W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 157 At such Distances may be put in Sollar-sets, Ashen-keys, and Hazel-nuts. Ibid. 176 The old Saying, Be the Oak ne'er so stout, the Sollar red will wear it out. |